CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Public librarians must serve everyone in their communities – people of all races, those with disabilities, people who are not native English speakers, the elderly and the homeless.
Nicole Cooke, a University of Illinois professor of library and information sciences, wrote a recently published textbook to help librarians and library students better understand the importance of serving diverse groups of people. “Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals” was published in December. It discusses, among other things, the political, social, economic and technological divides among library patrons, and evaluating outreach and services to diverse populations.
“To my knowledge, it’s the first textbook addressing these diversity issues. It’s a missing piece for a lot of programs,” Cooke said. “I hope the book is interesting not just to students but to librarians out in the field.”
The book grew out of a course Cooke developed and teaches at the School of Information Sciences. The course, “Information Services to Diverse Populations,” looks at groups of people that include racial and ethnic minorities; LGBT people; veterans; people with physical and mental disabilities; senior citizens; immigrants and international students; the hungry, homeless and impoverished; and those who are incarcerated.
“We talk about cultural competence. How do (librarians) serve diverse populations?” Cooke said.
She speaks with her students about how to learn about those populations and their needs, and about modifying collections to better serve them – for example, including materials in a foreign language or audio and video materials for patrons who can’t read or who are learning English.
Cooke asks her students to examine the various aspects of their own identities and consider what is apparent to others – for example, race – and invisible factors, such as religion or mental health issues, as a way of empathizing with others.
“We talk a lot about language and how to have these hard conversations about race or inclusion or privilege,” Cooke said. “I work really hard in class so they can have these conversations.”
The students also hear from guest speakers in the profession who talk about how they’ve tried to reach diverse groups, such as using hip-hop when teaching about researching poetry and including contemporary urban fiction, or “street lit,” on their shelves.
The book provides a comprehensive overview of the research on serving diverse populations, and includes lesson plans at the end of each chapter, with questions, recommended readings and references. The back of the book includes a sample syllabus and 16 sample assignments.
Cooke also teaches classes on social justice and on race, gender and sexuality in the information professions. She said it is a unique opportunity to be able to teach three dedicated classes on diversity and social justice issues.
She is working on a diversity audit of the library school’s curriculum and suggesting ways professors may choose to insert discussions on diversity issues into other courses.
The American Library Association has recognized Cooke for her work on diversity issues in librarianship. She was recently notified she’ll receive the association’s 2017 Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award. She received its 2016 Equality Award for outstanding contributions toward promoting equality in the library profession.
Cooke also was awarded the U. of I.’s Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award for Teaching and Mentoring in Diversity in 2016, and the University YWCA’s 2015 Leadership Award in Education for her work in social justice and higher education.